Stasimon 2
[Episode]
By going where he will see you as he sacrifices.
635
Orestes
He has fields by the road, it seems?
Old man
Yes, and when he sees you there, he will invite you to the feast.
Orestes
I shall be a bitter companion in the feast, if the god wishes it.
Old man
After that, you yourself invent something, as it falls out.
Orestes
Well said. But my mother, where is she?
640
Old man
At Argos; but she will join her husband for the feast.
Orestes
Why didn’t my mother set out with her husband?
Old man
From fear of the citizens’ reproach she stayed behind.
Orestes
I understand; she knows that the city suspects her.
Old man
Something like that; for an unholy woman is an object of hatred.
645
Orestes
How then shall I kill her and him at once?
Electra
I shall prepare my mother’s slaughter!
Orestes
And as for the other matter, fortune will ordain well.
Electra
Let this man here help us with both.
Old man
I will; but how will you find a way to kill your mother?
650
Electra
Go to Clytemnestra, old man, and say this: report that I have given birth to a male child.
Old man
That you have given birth some time ago, or quite recently?
Electra
Ten days ago, in which a woman who has given birth stays pure.
Old man
And how does this grant us the slaughter of your mother?
655
Electra
She will come, when she hears of my childbirth pangs.
Old man
How is that? Do you think she cares for you, child?
Electra
Yes; and she will weep, surely, over my child’s low rank.
Old man
Perhaps; bring your story back again to the turning-point.
Electra
Well then, if she comes, it is clear that she will die.
660
Old man
Yes, she will come right up to the door of your house.
Electra
Won’t it then be a little thing for her to turn aside to Hades?
Old man
May I die, once I have seen this!
Electra
First of all, old man, guide my brother—
Old man
To the place where Aegisthus is now sacrificing to the gods?
665
